Harriet finally withdraws after 176 years June 24, 2006
HER long history in Australia is as colourful as the hibiscus flowers she lovingly munched on. But time has finally caught up with the world's oldest animal in captivity.
The giant Galapagos tortoise Harriet has died of a suspected heart attack at the ripe old age of 176 on the Sunshine Coast.
She was a star attraction at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo since the 1980s and even features in the Guinness Book of Records for her longevity.
It is believed Harriet was one of three animals that Charles Darwin brought back from his trip to the Galapagos Islands in 1835. It was on this trip that the naturalist formed his theories of evolution and natural selection.
A few years later, Darwin gave the animals to a Brisbane-bound friend. For about 100 years Harriet was mistakenly thought to be a male - and called Harry.
At 176, Harriet was recognised as the world's oldest living chelonian - a reptile with a shell or bony plates.
Irwin said he considered Harriet a member of the family. "Harriet has been a huge chunk of the Irwin family's life," he said. "I have grown up with this gorgeous old girl and so have my kids.
"She is possibly one of the oldest living creatures on the planet and her passing today is not only a great loss for the world but a very sad day for my family.
I have personally met Harriet and have taken her photo numerous times. I am sad She always looked comical with a hibiscus flower hanging out of her mouth. Bless Harriet the giant Galapagos tortoise.
Moose, the Jack Russell terrier who played Eddie for over a decade on the Emmy-winning TV series Frasier, has died. He was 16-and-a-half (115 in dog years). Moose died on Thursday night of old age at his home near Los Angeles, according to his trainer Mathilde Halberg. She tells American People magazine, "He just had an incredible charisma and was such a free spirit." Halberg rescued Moose from a dog pound in the early 1990s and soon discovered he was a natural actor.
That IS sad Simpson. He had a pretty good life though, especially the latter half. That's a good long life for a dog and small dogs live longer and healthier.
I saw briefly a news clip this evening of Steve Irwin crying over Harriet. The prospect of her being cut up and examined for 'scientific purposes' by a naturalist whose Father had Harriet before the Irwins is horrible. Steve is totally against it and was putting his side of it out there for the public.
Irwin selects a natural burial for Harriet Greg Roberts June 27, 2006 STEVE Irwin has angered the family of an eminent naturalist with his plan to bury Harriet, a Galapagos tortoise claimed to have been the world's oldest living creature.
Alongside the crocodiles that made Irwin famous, Harriet was a star attraction at Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast until her death last Friday of heart failure.
Irwin and his wife, Terri, want a private memorial service for Harriet when the tortoise - said to have been 176 years old - is buried at the zoo this week.
Irwin claims in the zoo's promotional material that the tortoise was collected by Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Islands in 1835, during the voyage that shaped his theory of evolution.
Before being sent to Australia Zoo in the late 1980s, Harriet lived for 40 years at Fleay's Fauna Reserve on the Gold Coast. The reserve was owned by the late David Fleay, an internationally renowned naturalist.
Fleay's daughter, Rosemary Fleay-Thompson, said yesterday Harriet was one of the last of a distinctive subspecies of tortoise found only on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos.
Ms Fleay-Thompson said she was disturbed at the prospect of Harriet being buried.
"It really would be a terrible waste. She is a very interesting animal scientifically and she should be kept as a specimen in the interests of science," Ms Fleay-Thompson said.
But Australia Zoo curator Kelsey Moulton said the Irwins were keen for the tortoise to be buried at the zoo.
"Putting her in a museum would be like selling your grandmother for science," she said.
The 150kg tortoise, listed by Guinness World Records as the planet's oldest living animal, died in time for Canberra author Anthony Hill to update the manuscript of a book he has written about Harriet.
Contrary to Irwin's claim, Hill said several tortoises collected by Darwin in the Galapagos came from James Island and not Santa Cruz, Harriet's birthplace.
However, Harriet was suspected of being one of three tortoises brought to Brisbane in the mid-1800s by government official John Wickham, who was an officer on Darwin's ship, The Beagle.
Although Australia Zoo held a 175th birthday party for Harriet last year, Hill said it was not possible to determine her age.
"All the DNA analysis tells us is that she was older and genetically diverse from the current tortoise population.
"She could have been born in 1830 or 1870. She was a very old animal, however."
Sad news that Harriet, the much loved tortoise at Australia Zoo, died of a heart attack at the incredible age of 175! Harriet, who held the World Record for the oldest living animal in captivity, is rumoured to have been Sir Charles Darwin’s pet, after he picked her up in 1835 from the Galapagos Islands.
Harriet lived at Fleay's Fauna Reserve at West Burleigh for more than 30 years before making the move to the Sunshine Coast. Rosemary Thomson from Natural Bridge helped look after Harriet for more than 30 years.
"It's like a death in the family actually", says Rosemary Thompson, "she was very much loved by generations of Queenslanders. She came to us in 1958 when the Brisbane Botanical Gardens collection was disbanded. She roamed on the hills with the kangaroos, emus and wallabies. She was a vegetarian, that says a lot for vegetarian living, although I'm a beef farmer!"
"When you consider Harriet was hatched from an egg before the reign of Queen Victoria it's just astounding. If only she could have talked, she was never mated with another tortoise because they were pretty rare."
It's never been verified she was actually a pet of Charles Darwin, "unfortunately the records from the Botanical Gardens were swept down the Brisbane River on the 1893 flood. It's very sad really," Rosemary says, "my father met Harriet in 1939 when he was on his way to an expedition to New Guinea. He was told she had come to the gardens in 1860."
When you consider Harriet was hatched from an egg before the reign of Queen Victoria it's just astounding
"There were reputed to be three of them named Tom, d**k and Harry. They were about five years of age judging on their size when they went to England on the Beagle, Charles Darwin's vessel. Lt Wickham was on the expedition and he, I think, from letter people have read, took these three animals back to Australia because the English climate didn't suit them. They reach maturity at about thirty years of age. I think they went to Sydney and up to Newstead house where Wichkam settled. From there to the gardens. The body of 'Tom' is preserved at the Qld Museum, he died in the 1920s."
"My daughter Jane visited Harriet a week ago with her family, and they said that Harriet hadn't moved from her little shed, and the food hadn't been touched and they were wondering what was wrong with Harriet because she was very fond of her carrots and celery, and vegetarian matter. Hibiscus flowers were a choice item. So they were a bit worried about her when they reported back to us. She must have been ailing, but she had a good spin at 175 years!"
"I'm hoping her body will be preserved for science. There's a possibility Harriet came from Santa Maria island in the Galapogas group, and she would have been the last of her species", Rosemary Thompson.
I dunno... she was just a turtle. And now she's dead, whats it matter if she was fully examinned in the interest of science? I am aware they could do that to me when I die because I'm an organ donar, it doesn't bother me - I'll be dead, what do I care?!
I've got to agree with Simpson on this one. Strap on a pair Irwin seriously!!
"The Daily Telegraph has just about run out of adjectives to capture the incompetence of these Macquarie St state-stranglers. For now, we'll limit it to three: deceitful, callous and irresponsible." - Editorial, Wednesday November 12, 2008
As an animal lover I find it horrifying that anyone would think that cutting up something as Iconic as Harriet is Okay. My beautiful baby girl, a budgie eight and a half years old died in March this year. I wrapped her tiny 50g body in a good wash cloth, then bubble wrap, then sealed her in an oblong plastic takeaway chinese food container, wrote an epitaph in texta on the outside of the lid and placed the sarcophagus in the bottom of the chest freezer in the garage awaiting the day when I buy a large plant pot and set the sarcophagus in the potting mix and plant a beautiful plant on top of her so I can take her wherever I go (if I move). I know it is just her body but like the egyptians I am honouring the dead. My Father raised me to love all living creatures and with the various animals we had during my growing years, I have great empathy and compassion for animals. I treated another of my budgie's, not as long lived as Sunshine, but just as dear to me, in the same manner. He is now entombed in a Pot under a birds nest fern (which I thought was appropriate). I have a friend that held his 15 plus year old Blue heeler for hours after she died, and still sheds tears at the loss of his friend. My daughter will stop traffic for ducks, snakes, lizards anything on the road. She has saved many an animal and has shed tears for them if they were beyond saving. Some of us are animal people and some of us aren't. I'm with Steve Irwin on his decision to bury Harriet where she lived her final days, twilight years if you like. The fact he cried only shows what a great guy he is, IMHO.
This man was such a sweetie with a wonderful little lispy way of speaking. I loved him. 'Whimsical' John Hinde dies
July 5, 2006 - 10:35AM
One of Australia's first foreign correspondents, TV presenter and movie critic, John Hinde has died in Sydney aged 92.
ABC Radio's AM program today paid tribute to Hinde, who filed a report for its first bulletin.
Mr Hinde began his career at the ABC in the news department and was a correspondent in the Pacific during World War II.
He was later known as a film critic, presenting films on ABC TV and a weekly film review on Radio National.
"He died last night in a Sydney nursing home," an ABC spokeswoman said.
ABC TV film reviewer David Stratton said Hinde possessed innate good humour and wit, and was a pleasure to talk to.
"He would always focus very often on small details, on whimsical little things that appealed to him, and convey them so beautifully to the listener or the viewer in his television introductions," Mr Stratton told ABC Radio.
In his first report for AM, on September 4, 1967, Mr Hinde covered a plan by artist Salvador Dali to cross the Pyrenees on an elephant.
"So I don't know what the fuss is about over flying an elephant to him from India," Hinde said in the report.
"Dali could easily fillet one, reconstitute it at the end of the flight, and cross the Pyrenees in style, as Hannibal once crossed the Alps.
"And he can travel at leisure too, because time's no object to him.
"And if he needs vinegar to break up the rocks in the way Hannibal did, well, Dali of all people has plenty of that, wherever he goes."
I know this thread is in the Celebrities section but hey... anyone can be called a 'celebrity' these days.
Giant of building and arts worlds dies after accident July 10, 2006
THE founding chairman of the Australian construction company Transfield Holdings, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis, has died after an accident in Italy, at the age of 91.
His family said he failed to regain consciousness yesterday after falling over while on a summer break south of Genoa.
Mr Belgiorno-Nettis, who was an art enthusiast, is also credited with founding the Biennale of Sydney in 1973.
Born in Italy in 1915, he fought with the Italian army against Allied forces in North Africa during World War II, before being sent to Australia in 1951 by an Italian engineering firm to build powerlines.
Five years later, Mr Belgiorno-Nettis went into competition with his former employers when he established his own engineering and construction company, Transfield, with a colleague, Carlo Salteri. It became the largest engineering and construction company in the southern hemisphere.
Within a decade, Mr Belgiorno-Nettis and Mr Salteri were among Australia's most successful industrialists, with projects ranging from transmission towers to hydro-electricity stations, and bridges to oil platforms.
Mr Belgiorno-Nettis's body will be returned to Sydney for a private funeral service in a fortnight.
His son, Marco Belgiorno-Zegna, said despite having a pacemaker fitted a few months ago, his father was in good health. "He just lost his balance. It's a freak accident - we're all shocked."
When someone that aged has a very minor 'accident' it usually spells the end for them. I have been told that the idea of someone elderly 'falling and breaking their hip' is most likely wrong in 99% of cases. It is more likely to be that their hip breaks and then they fall down. Because bones get brittle and just fracture all by themselves.
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US actress June Allyson dies Film, stage and TV actress June Allyson, best known for her girl-next-door charm and winsomely husky voice in such 1940s classics as Good News and Little Women, has died aged 88.
Allyson's husband of 30 years, David Ashrow, says she died on Saturday from respiratory failure and acute bronchitis at her Californian home.
She had been in declining health since undergoing hip-replacement surgery a few years ago.
Born Ella Geisman in the Bronx, New York, Allyson was brought up in near poverty and overcame a childhood accident that left her in braces for four years, eventually teaching herself to dance.
Auditioning for a Broadway show on a dare, the bubbly blond performer landed her first professional appearance in the chorus line of the Rodgers and Hart musical, Sing Out the News.
Allyson made her feature film debut in the 1943 big-screen version of Broadway musical Best Foot Forward, reprising the ingenue role she played two years earlier on stage in a production choreographed by Gene Kelly.
Under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, she went on to play wholesome, perky roles in a string of light comedies, musicals and romances, including Music for Millions, Two Girls and a Sailor, Little Women and Good News.
She won a Golden Globe Award for her 1951 role in Too Young to Kiss, in which she played a talented pianist who poses as a child prodigy to gain an audition for a music impresario who is holding try-outs for a kids' concert tour.
As the 1950s wore on, Allyson grew into roles as the supportive wife in such films as The Glenn Miller Story and Strategic Air Command.
Although ranked as one of the 10 leading box office stars in the mid-1950s, her Hollywood career waned at the end of that decade and she moved into television, starring in her own drama anthology series, The June Allyson Show, which ran from 1959 to 1961.
She returned to Broadway in 1970 to succeed Julie Harris as star of 40 Carats, her first stage role in two decades, and continued to make occasional TV and film appearances through the 1990s.
Allyson also headlined a national tour of the stage musical No, No Nanette in the 1970s.
She was married to actor d**k Powell, with whom she co-starred in two 1950 films, from 1945 until his death in 1963.
Later, Allyson twice married and twice divorced Powell's barber, Glenn Maxwell.
In 1976, she wed her third husband, Ashrow, a retired dentist, with whom she appeared in the stage play that year, My Daughter, Your Son.
Syd Barrett, the troubled founding member of British rock group Pink Floyd, has died at age 60 after living the life of a recluse for the last 30 years.
"The band are naturally very upset and sad to learn of Syd Barrett's death," Pink Floyd said in a statement Tuesday. "Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire."
A source close to the band, who did not want to be named, said Barrett died on Friday. Media reports say complications from diabetes were the cause.
Barrett's bizarre on-stage antics in the late 1960s were linked to his experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and he left the band in 1968.
The singer, songwriter and guitarist who wrote the bulk of Pink Floyd's earliest music has been credited with helping shape its progressive sound and influencing other artists, including David Bowie.
He wrote most of the songs on Pink Floyd's first album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which was a hit in Britain, and also worked on A Saucerful of Secrets, released in 1968.
Barrett issued his first solo album, The Madcap Laughs, in 1970, with backing from members of Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, but his involvement in music had ended by the mid-1970s, and he had lived the life of a recluse ever since.
Pink Floyd's 1975 track "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," from the album Wish You Were Here is widely believed to be a tribute to Barrett.
Tributes
He missed out on Pink Floyd's most successful years in the 1970s, when they made Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall.
The band went on to sell an estimated 200 million albums worldwide, although internal rifts have kept public performances featuring its main members to a minimum since the 1980s.
"Syd was a major inspiration for me. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed."
Barrett's biographer, Tim Willis, said Barrett struggled with mental breakdown during his life.
"I think he had trouble talking to people and was very happy with his own company," Willis told Reuters. "The painful experience of protracted nervous breakdown meant he did not want to know about that bit of his life."
Willis blamed a combination of drugs and stress for Barrett's mental fragility. "In one sense he only lived half a life. His career was over by 1971, if not 1969."
Graham Coxon, formerly of British band Blur, said Barrett was a major influence.
"The music is there ... a door he left unlocked ... spend time there .... it's good," Coxon said.
Barrett was born in Cambridge, England, as Roger Keith Barrett, in 1946. He acquired the nickname "Syd" as a teenager.
June Allyson was a sweet heart. I am sad to hear she has passed on. Eighty eight is a good long life though. Looking at photos of June through the ages has proven to me that this woman really didn't age!
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Lean out your window golden hair I heard you singing in the midnight air my book is closed, I read no more watching the fire dance on the floor I've left my book, I've left my room For I heard you singing through the gloom singing and singing, a merry air lean out the window golden hair.
Peace has found you Roger Keith Barrett, there is no more dark side of the moon, just set the controls for the heart of the sun, so the piper at the gates of dawn can find his way home, over and out Syd.
She always looked comical with a hibiscus flower hanging out of her mouth. Bless Harriet the giant Galapagos tortoise.
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